The official blog of Historical Fantasy Author, Mary Anne Yarde.
Come and join me on the hunt for everything mythological, as well as historical. Oh, and let's not forget the odd book or two! Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy...

Pages

Tuesday, 28 June 2016

Guest Post ~ Fish-god and Man, Oannes: Between two lives @flycisco

Guest Post ~ Fish-god
and Man, Oannes: Between two lives

By
Francisco Rebollo

www.franciscorebolloauthor.com

When it
comes to gods, Oannes has to be one
of the most obscure ones out there. The tale about a mysterious figure who
emerged from the sea onto the Babylonian shore to enlighten mankind, seems
clouded by the darkness of aeons lost, almost erased by time.

According to Jonathan Black in his
excellent book ‘The Secret History of the
World’ Babylonian Marduk priest Berossos
wrote around 281BC about a being who had the head and body of a fish and the
face and torso of a man. The being was called ‘Oannes’ and it spent the day
among people teaching them geometry, architecture and other sciences as well as
agriculture, the letters and the arts. After spending the day on land among the
people, at sundown Oannes would return to the sea.

“He
brought them the knowledge of letters, sciences and all kinds of techniques…”

-Berossos, Babyloniaca

Ancient Amphibious or aquatic deities
are not exclusive to Mesopotamia.

Another account of a half-fish,
half-man deity is that of Matsya
first avatar of Vishnu, who is
depicted as having a human top half of his body with the lower bottom half
being that of a fish. Matsya is credited with saving the first human from the
deluge and with saving the Vedas from a demon.

In Mali, Western Africa, the Dogon people hold the Nummo twins in a special place in their
belief system. The Nummo Gods were
central to the creation of man.

In: Marcel Griaule’s ‘Çonversations with Ogotemmeli,’ he
describes the Nummo Spirits as spirits of the water, present in the sea, lakes,
rivers or any body of water. They were described as having shiny green and
scaly skin, having a human top half of the body and a snake’s bottom half. The
twins were involved in giving humans two souls; one male, and one female.

The idea of more advanced creatures coming
from the sea to make contact with mankind should seem just as plausible – if
not more so – than beings making contact from outer space. The oceans of the
earth are vast and their depths are still a mystery to us. More and more new
species are being discovered in the world’s oceans every year.

One only has to look at species of sea
animals such as dolphins and whales to realise how intelligence is not at all
an exclusive quality to the human species.

But perhaps it is our own definition of
intelligence that is too narrow.

Contact in the opposite direction is
still a possibility: Humans could develop the minds’ potential in a way that makes
it possible for us to communicate with cetaceans.

“It
is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned
English – up to 50 words used in correct context – no human being has been
reported to have learned dolphinese.”-
Carl Sagan

What would the dolphins and whales of
the planet’s oceans have to say to us if we could communicate? Would they
praise us for our technological abilities, would they ask us about
electromagnetism, the internal combustion engine or computers?

Or
would they try to teach us? Would they try to point us in the right direction
with regard to developing more advanced qualities such as empathy, compassion
and the ability to find joy?

Cetaceans
naturally share everything and do all their activities together, they display
caring behaviour towards each other, they are playful and freely show their
emotional state to each other. For all of mankind’s prowess, we can’t really
say that we’ve managed that much yet.

I
chose the name of ‘Oannes’ for the main character in my debut novel ‘ORB’ because
I conceived this protagonist to be someone who is always caught between two
things, two choices, two worlds. The word ‘amphibious’ has its root in a Greek
word roughly meaning: ‘both lives.’

The
Oannes of antiquity moved back and forth between the world of men and the world
of the Gods, between land and the sea. He sought to enlighten mankind. In ‘ORB’
Oannes is not the enlightener but the enlightened, it’s almost as if he’s
chosen by the orb and given a special mission.

Whether
modern or ancient, the world of mythology is inhabited by imperfect Gods
seeking contact with people in need of a helping hand. Is our world, a world of
imperfect people seeking the help of flawed gods?

Maybe
– like Oannes himself – we are all between two lives.

“…stories like the Oannes
legend, and representations especially of the earliest civilizations on Earth,
deserve much more critical studies than have been performed heretofore, with
the possibility of direct contact with an extraterrestrial civilization as one
of many possible alternative explanations…”

Shklovski and Sagan,
p. 461

'An aeronautical love story from an altered world’

All is about to be unveiled…

Oannes Jones is an airline pilot living in a much altered world
where a pervasive technology seeps into every part of people’s lives in order
to create a compliant, unthinking society.

He believes he has found his purpose in playing father to Riply,
a young girl not his own. But he also feels hopelessly torn between two women,
one of whom is Riply’s mother.

And then it happens: a dangerous mid-air encounter with a
mysterious ball of light – the Orb.

The encounter awakens him to a new reality. Life, the world and
even dreams begin to look and feel different. His friends begin to change as
well. Clues are laid out for him to follow, most of them provided by Riply.

As dark forces begin to encircle, something happens that will
change everything for many people, not least for the child whom Oannes loves.

Hi,
my name is Francisco Rebollo. I'm a writer and pilot. I've been an
airline pilot since 1998. I'm from Mexico. I've flown and lived across
Europe and North America. In 2013, I suffered injuries and got grounded.
During those 16 months on the ground, I turned to my writing as a way
to get over what was a very difficult time. After a long journey, I am
back flying again.

I
have just finished my first novel: 'ORB' An Aeronautical Love Story
from an Altered World. The novel deals with flying, love, migration, the
paranormal, war, spirituality and the nature of the superstate. The
book is fiction but is also based partly on my own experiences in the
air. 'Fractals' (a poetry and prose collection) is also in production. I
began my writing career as a songwriter. I attended music colleges in
Mexico and USA. I began writing poetry while backpacking across Europe
during the trip which eventually brought me to Ireland - where I now
live permanently. My poem: 'MIND GAP (London Fireworks)' made the 'Word
on the Waves' 2015 long list. My articles ‘Why Mexicans Celebrate St.
Patrick’s Day in September’ and'The flower of Twenty and the Day of the
Dead' have been featured in the ‘West Cork People’ (Mar 2014/Oct 2014.)
My poetry has featured in e-publications like: 'Poetry24,' 'The Poetry
Daily,' 'Democracia Real Ya!', and 'El Fugaz Ciberdiario;' as well as
'Zaytoun CIC's' website and newsletter. I perform regularly at 'pSoken
Wrod' (a renowned 'spoken word' event in west Cork, Ireland.)